Newbie with dealer value questions

[Anonymous Poster]

I have been lurking and learning for a couple of months. I have 4 acres wich need finish mowing,600' of snowblowing,material moving and some bh work. I have started to visit area dealers-orange,blue and green. It seems that the dealers in this area-New Hampshire- are large. The salesman are nice enough but I question if the service department is going to know that I did or did not buy from them. If I travel out of NE to get a better price will it really make a difference to the service department when I call for service? I buy my trucks at one dealer and get excellent service from a closer dealer. The sales and service departments are seperate profit centers. With a truck I never get asked where I bought it. Is it different with tractors? Does the size of the dealer make a difference? It seems to me the money paid to the service department is still green no matter where the unit is bought. Thanks for your input to this in the information I have gotten in the past.

 

[Woodbeef]

Why not ask them? That way you'll know for sure. I do not know about the CUTs and warranty work,but on Ag tractors I've heard a few of the green and red dealers complain about not always getting paid for warranty work like they should. So this might just have a bearing on whether or not the local dealer will welcome you with open arms. You have to make a desicion on just how much savings you really get from going out of town to buy. How would you feel if you by-passed the local dealer to save $500,but he went under and you then had to go over 100 miles for parts and service? Sometimes you can not have it both ways!!

 

[thcri]

Miked,

I agree with Woodbeef. The automobile industry pays cross over waranties very well and most dealers welcome the opportunity to handle warranty work. I beleive the tractor industry to somewhat different and the dealer might not be gunho on helping you out. Once it is out of warranty it would be a different story.

murph

 

[rockyridgefarm]

I work in auto dealerships, and can assure you that there is much "grey area" when dealers service your vehicle. A dealer often has discretion on many repairs, up to a certain overall total. So guess who gets the first shot at those funds? The good customers. I am not saying all aren't treated fairly, but you can afford to give some breaks to those whove patronized you, and will continue to. While sales and service are differant cost centers, it takes both to make a dealership go.

I decided, after reading good and bad experiences on TBN to only deal with a dealer if I could also be content using them for service. I am not saying I won't use another one, but am prepared to use the selling dealer.

As it is, I found a dealer across the state line who really saved me a chunk of money. ($5800.00 is nothing to sneeze at...)

 

[cowboydoc]

For the most part you aren't going to get any better or worse service in my opinion if you did or didn't buy from them. I've done both and haven't noticed any difference.

 

[cowboydoc]

The tractor industry is just like everyone else when it comes to repairs. If it's in warranty they will get paid just the same if you bought from them or didn't buy from them.

Rocky Ridge,
Can you explain this a little more? There are no discretionary funds in warranty work that I've ever been aware of. The warranty is from the mfg. Unless I'm missing something funds for warranty work are not allocated out. If it's broke and you're under warranty it's going to be fixed. That is your right under law. There is no way that a dealerhsip, be it tractor or automobile can deny you any kind of warranty service. What is the "grey area"?

This last year I had numerous problems with a truck that I bought. The dealer that I bought it from did nothing for me. He even got Ford to deny some warranty work because I had put gauges and a transmission cooler on it! I went to another dealer in another town. He not only got my warranty work done but he got them to buy back the truck that I had.

 

[thcri]

A year or so ago we bought a new Suburban from the normal place that we have bought all of our vehicles. This dealer is a Chevy/Chrysler dealer in a town about 40 miles away from us. A friend of the family who works for Buick came to me and said. Hey, let us work on that for all of you warranty repairs. He told me that they make better money on warrranty stuff than they do or their regular stuff. I prbably would have bought the Suburban from this guy but they did not access to the suburbans. When we were on our trip with the suburban out in Montana I hit a pheasant that flew up out of the ditch and broke my side mirror. It broke to the point the fluids had leaked out of it and I could not see out of it at all any more. The next morning we looked for the local chevy dealer and they did not have the mirror in stock. They called the next town we were headed to and they had one for us. They changed it right away and I asked how much, thinking this would not be in warrantee, they said no charge, this should have not happened and GM's will cover this under warrantee. This company even hand washed our car from one end to the other. To me if there was any descretion of warrantee this would have been it.

Now on the other hand, I sell furnaces and air conditioners for a living. All of the manufactures only pay 1 year on parts and parts only. They have some extended warranties for heat exchangers and compressors but again only 1 year on all parts. There never is a labor credit that we can get from the manufacturer unless it fails on the day of start up. So if someone buys a furnace from a competitor, I will not work on the product until the warrantee is out or if they are willing to pay me to handle it. As far as descretion the distributor is given money from the manufacture on a yearly basis to cover different situations.

I guess what I am saying is you might want to be careful about buying a ways a way and expecting the local to take care of it. Maybe find out from your dealer your buying from how cross warrantees are done or expect to pay the local guy some money to take care of your tractor.

murph

 

[rockyridgefarm]

Re: Dealer warranty

Doc, I was vague on purpose.

In automotive warranty work does pay more, but the work is audited to make sure things are in compliance. Some dealers get more lee way than others, based on many factors, such as volume, repair frequency, fix on first visit and customer satisfaction. A good dealer gets more flexibilty from the manufacturer. But if they abuse it, they lose it.

A dealer often eats repairs,counting them as the cost of keeping a customer happy.

Customer modifications are another issue. I am not suggesting that yours cause any problems, but can you guess how many chipped diesels come our way? The manufacturer won't pay for warranty, so the dealer proceeds at own risk. The customer is long gone before the manufacturer kicks back the repair saying they won't pay. Try that on an engine or transmission replacement once or twice and all of a sudden you figure its a lot safer to tell the customer, sorry I can't help you.

Some song for third party service contracts. First they approve the work, the customer gets fixed, then just TRY and collect....

A dealer gets paid well to do warranty work. It is often in their best interest to do it, no matter where the vehicle is purchased. But they don't have to. And sometimes they won't.

Fair treatment of customers is actually following all the fine print. But if a dealer may choose to cover something that is technically not covered. The manufacturer may go ahead and pay, or might not. With a tractor, I wonder how many times the discretion has to do with whether not a part has been abused.

 

[dourobob]

Interseting issue on dealers and service. I bought a new tractor in 1985 after shopping all of the locally available colours and assessing the dealer I liked best. There were a lot more to choose from back then. Only problem for me was the dealer went out of business about 15 months later. Their service was fine while they were in business but, after they shut the door I had no trouble being treated well by a couple of independet repair shops.

I think what I am saying is the dealer is important but there are lots of other considerations - distance, costs, length of warranty, best deal, etc.

Bob

 

[frank_f15]

i don't think u are going to find any set rules! just going to depend on each individaul dealer, they will all have to do your warrenty work but HOW FAST AND IN WHAT ORDER of preference.smart dealers look down the road, when ur machine is out of warrenty, if you are pleased with the way you were treated you will continue to use them for parts and service. does this make sense?